<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div>Hi:</div><div><br></div><div>I was sent this by a colleague and thought it worth passing on to the list.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers</div><div><br></div><div>Brian Randell</div><div><br></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><br><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/07/01/historian-of-technology-cruelly-crushes-internet-myths/" target="_blank">http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/07/01/historian-of-technology-cruelly-crushes-internet-myths/</a><br>

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        science in the news</div><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px 9px 0px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">Cross-Check Home</a></span></div>

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<h1 style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:18px;vertical-align:baseline;font-weight:bold;font-family:Brunel-for-Titles,georgia,times,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;line-height:26px;background:transparent">

Historian of Technology Cruelly
        Crushes Internet Myths</h1><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px 5px 0px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:nowrap;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background:transparent">By<span> </span><a style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">John Horgan</a> |<span> </span></span><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px 5px 0px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:nowrap;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background:transparent">July 1, 2014</span><span> </span><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">|  <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/07/01/historian-of-technology-cruelly-crushes-internet-myths/#respond" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" title="Comment on Historian of Technology Cruelly Crushes
            Internet Myths" target="_blank"><img alt="Comments" style="margin:0px;padding:0px 4px 0px 0px;border:none!important;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" apple-inline="yes" id="F54D472C-9C49-44A5-AC56-EAE52756F18E" height="10" width="11" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:part6.07050407.03020506@tmtstrategies.com">4</a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; display: block; clear: both; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The views expressed are those of the
          author and are not necessarily those of</i><span> </span>Scientific American.</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; font-family: ApresTT, Prelude, arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">

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<hr style="border-style:none none dotted;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-color:rgb(178,178,178);background-color:transparent"><br><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 10px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;font-family:Georgia,ApresTT,Prelude,Verdana,san-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);overflow:hidden;background:transparent"><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">As readers of
          this blog know, since 2005 I’ve been teaching at Stevens
          Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. One of the
          best parts of being an academic is hanging out with cool
          (compared to me), young (compared to me), up-and-coming
          scholars, some of whom know far more about the history of
          science and technology than I do. Take, for example, Andrew L.
          Russell, who joined Stevens in 2008 and is now assistant
          professor of history and director of the<span> </span><a href="http://www.stevens.edu/cal/sts" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">Program in Science and Technology Studies</a><span> </span>in the Stevens<span> </span><a href="http://www.stevens.edu/cal" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">College of Arts &
            Letters</a>. (See his website<span> </span><a href="http://arussell.org/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">here</a>.) Andy is the
          author of a new book,<span> </span><a href="http://arussell.org/open/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank"><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Open
              Standards and the Digital Age: History, Ideology, and
              Networks</em></a>, published by Cambridge University
          Press, that challenges myths about the origins of digital
          technologies, including the Internet. (No less an authority
          than Vinton Cerf, a creator of the Internet, calls Andy’s book
          “remarkable” and gives it<span> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Open-Standards-Digital-Age-Enterprise/product-reviews/1107039193/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">a five-star review on Amazon</a>.) Andy’s
          historical perspective, in turn, informs his understanding of
          the Snowden affair, net neutrality and other current
          controversies. To get a taste of Andy’s outlook, check out his
          recent articles for<span> </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/21/net_neutrality_the_internet_s_history_isn_t_as_open_as_you_think.html" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank"><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Slate</em></a>and<span> </span><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/osi-the-internet-that-wasnt" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank"><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">IEEE Spectrum</em></a><span> </span>and—even better–read
          the following Q&A.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent"><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/files/2014/07/standards1.jpeg" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank"><img alt="" height="346" style="margin:5px 20px 20px 0px;padding:0px;border:none!important;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;float:left;display:block;max-width:600px;background:transparent" title="standards" width="233" apple-inline="yes" id="3FBA988C-A722-4B5A-B668-AEB684C8DDC1" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:part18.02000702.02040708@tmtstrategies.com"></a>Horgan: You’re on<span> </span><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The
            Daily Show</em><span> </span>with
          Jon Stewart, and he asks you to sum up your book in a few
          sentences. What do you say?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: My book
          is a history of American information networks–telegraph,
          telephone, and computer networks. The main characters in my
          story are engineers you’ve never heard of, such as Bancroft
          Gherardi, Charles Bachman, and Louis Pouzin, who made
          technical standards that tied telephones and computers into
          networks.  I’m fascinated by these engineers because they
          didn’t only focus on technical details; they also promoted
          distinctive visions of politics, business, and society that
          often flew in the face of the status quo.  Once you understand
          what these engineers were trying to accomplish, you’ll have a
          much better sense for why the Internet is such a big deal in
          the broad sweep of history.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Horgan: I thought
          the Internet was created by hippy geeks who envisioned a world
          with more peace, love, happiness and bandwidth. Are you
          telling me I was wrong?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: Yes!
           The core technologies that define the Internet–the TCP/IP
          standards–were sponsored by the US Department of Defense.
           It’s true that a small number of the people that worked on
          these defense grants had hippie sensibilities.  I suppose that
          angle has gotten a lot of press and popular attention – hence
          your misconception.  But your version leaves out an important
          detail: all of the people who built TCP/IP were, by
          definition, defense contractors.  As I say in my book, I think
          the best term to describe the early stages of the Internet’s
          growth is “autocratic design.” It was overseen by arm-twisting
          Defense Department managers, not by a decentralized community
          of hippies!</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Horgan: Have you
          gotten any blowback from the Internet Illuminati?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: No–those
          folks keep doing new things, and tend not to be too interested
          in looking backwards.  More to the point, most of my book is
          not about the Internet itself.  In most of the chapters in the
          book, I show how some of the core concepts that we now
          associate with the Internet–such as “openness” and
          “consensus”–have deep roots in mechanical engineering in the
          late 1800s, trade associations in the early 1900s, and telecom
          and computer networks in the mid-1900s.  If anyone is going to
          be upset, it will be journalists or law professors who have
          built their reputations on a mythologized version of the
          Internet’s history.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Horgan: What’s
          net neutrality, and what’s your view on it?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: “Net
          neutrality” is a term coined by Tim Wu, who teaches at
          Columbia Law School.  The animating spirit behind “net
          neutrality” is the concern that network operators and ISPs
          could – for whatever reason – slow down or block Internet
          traffic that they don’t like.  I’m sympathetic, of course, but
          the nice slogan “net neutrality” obscures the complicated
          underlying issues.  I’m skeptical about the remedies that net
          neutrality advocates are promoting, since they call on
          Congress and/or the FCC to create new regulations around the
          Internet.  Regulation in itself isn’t necessarily a bad
          thing–I’m no libertarian–but, to be honest, I’ve never met
          anyone who thinks that our current crop of representatives in
          Congress are capable of writing a good law in this area.  And
          any rules the FCC passes are certain to be tied up for years
          in appeals litigation.  Internet and telecom companies have
          lots of lawyers and lobbyists, and both sides of the debate
          are investing heavily in their public relations and legal
          campaigns.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Horgan: Do you
          think the potential of the Internet to foster freedom
          outweighs its potential to enable oppression?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: My
          goodness, I hope so!  But let’s remember: like all
          technologies, the Internet is a tool that humans created and
          use.  It doesn’t exist outside of human societies.  So, your
          real question is: “Does the potential of humanity to foster
          freedom outweigh its potential to enable oppression?”</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Horgan: Do you
          think Edward Snowden should be tried for treason or given a
          medal?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: Jeez,
          nobody will accuse you of throwing me softballs.  I’m an
          historian, and we tend to be most effective when we can use a
          long-term perspective before passing judgment.  So, my
          instinct is to wait and see.  I’m sure the story will have
          more twists, and with these cloak-and-dagger things there is
          always a lot more going on that we don’t know about.  In any
          case, he won’t be tried for treason as long as he stays in
          Russia!</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Horgan: How did a
          nice guy like you get interested in history of technology?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: It
          seemed like the shortest path to fame and fortune, which I’m
          sure is right around the corner.  Right?  The short version is
          that after I graduated from college (I was a history major at
          Vassar), I found a job at the Harvard Kennedy School working
          for a group called the “Information Infrastructure Project.”
          This was the late 1990s.  I thought the subject sounded
          boring–the job I really wanted was in the Kennedy School’s
          Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics, and Public Policy–but I
          had student loans to pay and I couldn’t afford to be picky.
           It didn’t take me long to realize that this whole Internet
          thing was pretty interesting!  After I worked for a couple of
          years, and learned a lot, I decided to go to grad school to
          study American history and focus on the Internet’s history.  I
          started at the University of Colorado at Boulder, but when I
          finished my MA I moved to Johns Hopkins to complete my PhD in
          a more focused program in the History of Science, Technology,
          and Medicine.  My friend and colleague Jim McClellan wrote a
          great article–“<a href="http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/490101.pdf" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">Accident, Luck, and Serendipity in Historical
            Research</a>”–that sums up my story very well.  [Horgan
          note: I recently did a<span> </span><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2013/04/15/cantankerous-historian-of-science-questions-whether-science-can-achieve-truth/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">Q&A with McClellan about his latest book</a>.]</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Horgan: I hear
          you’re starting a new program in science and technology
          studies at Stevens. What’s the point? I mean, the goal?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;line-height:24px;background:transparent">Russell: Yes,
          it’s two years old!  We have a great group of faculty, and we
          offer two majors: Science, Technology & Society (STS), and
          Science Communication.  Our goal is to nurture a community of
          students, faculty, and staff at Stevens and in Hoboken who
          think in deep and broad terms about the issues that matter
          most to us: environmental sustainability and resilience; the
          future of medicine and healthcare; Internet security and
          privacy; and directing innovation toward social justice.  The
          best way to confront these issues is to draw on the wisdom and
          creativity that our humanistic traditions can inspire, and to
          blend those humanistic sensibilities with scientific and
          technical know-how.  We have a nice diversity of really smart
          students, and several of them are combining their STS or
          Science Communication major with another major at Stevens.
           [Horgan note: See my post on the science communication
          program <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/02/20/what-should-we-teach-when-we-teach-science-communication/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:16px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">here</a>.] This is producing some really cool
          combinations, for example, STS and Chemical Biology; Science
          Communication and Biomedical Engineering; and STS and Visual
          Arts & Technology.  Like I said–these students are really
          smart!</p><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;display:block;overflow:hidden;line-height:21.600000381469727px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:georgia,times,serif;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background:rgb(255,255,255)">

<span style="margin:3px 8px 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;float:left;display:block;background:transparent"></span><strong style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">About the Author:</strong><span> </span>Every week, hockey-playing
      science writer John Horgan takes a puckish, provocative look at
      breaking science. A teacher at Stevens Institute of Technology,
      Horgan is the author of four books, including The End of Science
      (Addison Wesley, 1996) and The End of War (McSweeney's, 2012).
      Follow on Twitter<span> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/Horganism" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(25,67,124);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:12px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent" target="_blank">@Horganism</a>.</div>

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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;  "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU</span><div style="font-size: 12px; ">EMAIL = <a href="mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk">Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk</a>   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923</div><div style="font-size: 12px; ">URL = <a href="http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell">http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell</a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;  "></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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